Rains drench a parched Houston, heaviest rains likely over in time for daybreak

During the overnight hours most of Houston has received the much-promised rainstorm it really needed after a very dry winter and summer.

In fact it’s been great for a lot of the state. Two to three inches of rain have fallen in Central Texas, all the way from Austin to Houston, where the drought is more severe than it is over the Houston metro area.

Locally, nearly the entirety of Harris County has received at least 2 inches of rain so far. Some areas north of Houston have received in excess of 5 inches of rain.

However the storms have stalled as they have moved east, bringing considerably less rain east of a line from Beaumont to Galveston.

Rainfall accumulations during the overnight hours. (HCOEM)

These are the most widespread, heaviest rains Houston has received since at least July, 2012.

The rains have been a real boon in the sense that they have been fairly copious, but not enough to cause widespread flooding or a large number of major road disruptions so far this morning. That is not to say the commute to the office this morning will be a picnic. But the heaviest rain likely fell overnight and now we’re probably only going to see lighter showers today.

Rain chances should taper off through the day, and a cold front should reach Houston later this afternoon or evening.

Rain will remain possible through Wednesday morning, however, at which time the persistent flow of dry northerly air will both end rain chances and clear out our skies.

It still appears likely that for Thursday and Friday mornings most of Houston will see low temperatures in the mid- to upper-50s.

Lots of rain and cooler weather — just can’t beat that after a dry spring and with summer nearly at hand.

2 Responses

Yes! The predictions were pretty faithful for this front and rainfall. My cousin has a big smile right now.

I measured 3.75 inches of rain at 7:15AM at my home weather station in NW Harris County and it is still raining lightly. That is a bit more than the “real time” Harris County rainfall website shows for the various stations surrounding me.